Insights and actions to connect you with your Best Customers

When the executive convened a group of senior leaders to dig into the competitor’s practices, they found that the challenge ran deeper than they had imagined. The competitor had made massive investments in its ability to collect, integrate, and analyze data from each store and every sales unit and had used this ability to run myriad real-world experiments. At the same time, it had linked this information to suppliers’ databases, making it possible to adjust prices in real time, to reorder hot-selling items automatically, and to shift items from store to store easily. By constantly testing, bundling, synthesizing, and making information instantly available across the organization—from the store floor to the CFO’s office—the rival company had become a different, far nimbler type of business.

Big data results from enterprises that track everything along the customer and supplier value chain. It might even be the next strategic asset companies include in due diligence when considering an acquisition. Imagine increasing the valuation of another firm because it has first-rate analytics group and a technology infrastructure that is compatible with your own business.

The authors pose several questions for executives to consider, and below they are restated as propositions that will either help your company win or leave you helpless in the face of a more nimble, astute competitor.

1. As massive amounts of data become widely available, capturing every nuance of customer behavior across all parts of the value chain, competitive edge go those who figure out how to mine that data for practical value.

2. Those with an embedded organizational ability to test, to test often, and test well will more quickly leverage the data available. If you ever read Paco Underhill’s classic book, Why we buy, just imagine that capability to monitor, assess and predict customer behavior across all of your brands, across all customer segments, and in response to any marketing initiative. Now imagine being able to do it fast, really fast! Look for the rise of customer insight groups in companies that get this message in a big way.

3. Speed no longer just being faster than the other guy (you know that old joke – you don’t have to outrace the bear, just the guy next to you). Speed, in the world of big data, is the ability to create nearly real-time customization of offers that capitalize on pre- and post-purchase behavior. Consider how Amazon can quickly post a message, “Customers who bought this item also bought…” before you conclude your purchase. Now put that capability on data-driven steroids with an analytics team that knows how to leverage the data.

And now look at your own company:

How are the directors in Marketing, IT, Operations and Strategy working together to get a handle on the coming era of big data?

Is the customer analytics group celebrated as a resource to beat the competition or are they just considered geeks in the back room?

Who is leading the charge to leverage big data across your firm?

Oh, and if you think you can just wait until the era of big data finally arrives, then you might relate to the picture above. Big data is already here.

You probably know by now that Steve Jobs died today, October 5th. His life story can be read here. Below I invite you to pause to consider one of the many comments in response to his passing. It was a reminder of the original Apple “Think Different” ad and a fitting tribute to Jobs’ spirit and actions; it’s good advice to all of us:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Thanks to “Ted” of Venice, CA for reminding us of these words. They are worth repeating.

Admit it: You worry. You worry that the new teller who just said “oops” when they mistakenly transferred your money from the wrong account will still get it wrong despite reassuring you it is now correctly transacted. You quietly shake your head as you walk to your car, noting to not go to that teller […]

Perhaps you know the phrase, “Good is the enemy of great”. Popularized in recent years by Jim Collins, the phrase suggests that satisfaction with just being good keeps us from achieving really great things. And taken as a touchstone for guiding customer experience, this can easily show up within the vision and call to action […]

Jason Fell shares a thoughtful post, “The new, new rules of business marketing“, building off the recent revised edition of The new rules of marketing & PR. Let’s take it one step further and note practical ways to apply these in support of your best customers and for those whom you want to become best customers! […]

In addition to the overall 2011 Customer Experience Ratings, Bruce Temkin recently published a summary of ratings for Customer Service across multiple industries. I have worked with a variety of financial institutions over the years, so I am naturally curious how they score. I also know many well intentioned, customer-centric people who work in banks, […]

The 2011 Temkin Customer Experience Ratings are out. I look forward to most anything Bruce Temkin has to report about the state of customer experience, and this report is worth a look. This is the graphic that always grabs my attention. What do you notice? See the averages across different industries? Pretty sad, especially beyond […]

For the marketing and business development professionals who read this blog…. Two guys are walking down the same street at separate times. Each is hungry, each is looking into the windows of stores where there is hot food, and each has a pocketful of money. Only thing is that one of these two guys doesn’t […]

Recently I’ve been focused on a phrase a client of mine has begun to use, “beyond imagination”. My vision is to create a Global Research & Development Center that isn’t just great; I want others to experience it as beyond imagination! He is wondering how to best engage his employees, his peers and other business […]

If you were among the billion or so people who watched The Royal Wedding today, the word that should come to mind is ‘Brilliant’! And your customer service function can learn valuable lessons from the ceremony and it’s design: 1. Inclusive. Planning a wedding always leads to tough decisions whom to invite. This couple had […]

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About Marc Sokol

I am a consultant, writer and speaker on organizational dynamics. As an organizational psychologist for the past 30 years, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with people all over the world; studying, learning, teaching, coaching individuals, working with groups and facilitating organizational change. It’s as much a passion as a profession.